Storm related damages can go unseen if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
The majority of windstorm damage arrives on an ordinary afternoon — a squall line, a hail cell, a lightning storm that lasts twenty minutes. This is typical for Florida, no cone on the television, no evacuation, no name. Because there was no named storm, the deductible falls under other perils deductible which is significantly less than a hurricane deductible in the majority of cases.
What to look for after a storm
- Tile roofs: check for loose tile after any storm over 60 to 70 mph.
- Hail on a tile roof shows itself. You get strikes, and the tile breaks.
- On shingle roofs, look for bruising to the shingles themselves — and check the vents, they are usually the first thing noticed on a roof being damaged after a hail storm.
- Debris, hail damage to exterior elevations.
- The A/C condensing unit. Condenser fins are easily damaged from hail and flying debris.
- The pool cage. Screens, spline, fasteners and framing.
Tornadoes and which deductible applies
Florida gets tornadoes two different ways, and the difference decides which deductible you’re under.
A tornado that isn’t connected to a hurricane is an ordinary windstorm loss. It comes off a squall line or a severe thunderstorm on an afternoon nobody named, and it generally falls under your all-other-perils deductible like any other wind event. The damage can be catastrophic and the deductible can still be a flat few thousand dollars.
A tornado spawned by a hurricane is a different matter. Florida statute defines the windstorm covered by hurricane coverage to include tornadoes caused by or resulting from a hurricane, and it sets the hurricane period as running from the issuing of a hurricane warning through 72 hours after the last watch or warning ends. §627.4025 A tornado inside that window is part of the hurricane, and the percentage deductible applies.
So two tornadoes can do identical damage to identical properties and produce very different numbers, depending on the date and what the National Hurricane Center had issued at the time. Note the date and time of the damage — on a tornado loss near a named storm, that detail is worth a great deal of money.
Lightning
A lightning loss is one of the most straightforward claims I handle. Generally, there is lightning damage to the roof or to surrounding trees located on or near the property — this supports the lightning strike and not surge, which is excluded in most policies. Lightning strike reports can be obtained for a fee, if necessary.
The electrician is the witness. When a bad storm rolls through and something goes out, an electrician gets called, and they see this constantly. A fried circuit board is recognizable, and they can tie it back to the strike. That report is usually all it takes.
Generally what gets disputed are the actual damages to the structure that sustained lightning damages.
- What tends to go: air conditioning, the well pump, pool equipment, the garage door opener, irrigation controllers, televisions and computers, stoves and refrigerators and anything else with a circuit board in it.
- Get an electrician out and get it in writing.
- If lightning took something out, report it even if only one item died.
Before you throw anything out
- Never get rid of a damaged electrical item until the claim has been paid on that item, and you’re satisfied with what you were paid.
- Never repair visible damage without photographing and videoing it first.
- Never let removed material leave the property.
Sometimes, I get called after the claim has already been filed, only to find out something has already been thrown away or repaired. Almost everything in a claim can be reopened, supplemented or argued again. Evidence that has been thrown out or repaired can’t be undone and it makes the claim harder to argue on your behalf.
What to look for in your policy
- Your all-other-perils deductible. In most policies this is the one that applies, not the hurricane deductible.
- Your hurricane deductible, and what triggers it. Which one applies to a tornado.
- Roof coverage — replacement cost or actual cash value, and whether a roof schedule applies due to age.
- Whether the screen enclosure and pool cage are covered, and if so what is the special limit.
- Check your Other Structures coverage. Is it included or not?
- Law and ordinance coverage, do I have it and how much?
- Find and review the endorsement titled Special Provisions — Florida.
- Who wrote the policy. A Florida-admitted carrier or a surplus lines carrier.
- Renewals often change policies. Review all endorsement changes.
After a storm loss: Dos and Don’ts
Dos
- Get someone up on the roof to look. Not a look from the driveway and not a look from a ladder at the edge. The damage that matters is in the field of the roof.
- Find your all-other-perils deductible before you decide anything. It’s on your declarations page, it’s usually a flat figure, and it’s usually far smaller than the one people assume.
- Note the date and time of the damage. On a tornado loss anywhere near a named storm, that detail decides which deductible you’re under.
- Photograph and video everything before anyone touches it. Overview shots that establish where you are, then close-ups. The stucco and the pool cage too, not only the roof.
- Get an electrician out and get their assessment in writing. On a lightning loss that report is the backbone of the claim.
- Check the things nobody checks. The condenser fins, the roof vents, the pool cage spline, the exterior walls.
- Report your claim promptly. It’s a condition of your policy. The one-year reporting requirement applies to any loss, not only to hurricanes.
- Ask whether anyone else on the street reported a loss. If the event already has a catastrophe number behind it, the date stops being an argument.
- Protect the property from further damage, and keep every receipt. That’s your duty under the policy.
Don’ts
- Don’t assume the hurricane deductible applies. It only applies to a named storm, and doing that arithmetic in your head is how people talk themselves out of a claim they were owed.
- Don’t decide it’s under your deductible from the ground. Nobody has seen the roof yet, including you.
- Don’t throw anything out or repair anything first. Three mistakes that can’t be undone.
- Don’t wait and see. If you’re the only one claiming, proving the date gets harder and more expensive the longer you leave it.
- Don’t report only the one thing that died. Lightning rarely takes exactly one item and the rest turns up over the following weeks.
- Don’t let a conversation stand in for a reported claim. If there’s no claim number and no date, nothing has been reported.
- Don’t pay a contractor in cash, and don’t accept a handwritten slip as an invoice.
- Don’t give a number you can’t support. Not on the phone, not in an email.
This isn’t everything. Your policy carries conditions and duties that apply after a loss, and they’re yours to meet whether or not they appear here. Read your own policy in full. If something in it doesn’t make sense, call me — it’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, whether or not you hire me.
These are the ones specific to this kind of loss. Select the link for the Dos and Don’ts that apply to every claim.
The call that matters
If a storm has been through your area, call or email me before you decide it wasn’t bad enough. Not because you couldn’t handle it yourself, but because the decisions that determine what your claim is worth get made in the first days, and once something has been thrown out or repaired they’re hard to undo. It’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, and I’ll tell you plainly whether there’s a claim worth making — and if there isn’t, I’ll tell you that too.
You stay in control of your claim. That’s the whole point.